Luo Wei confirmed several times. Yes, it was a silkworm baby. She was absolutely not mistaken.

"Nicole, my dear Nicole, this is not something a little spider like you should be playing with. Hand it over, be a good girl!"

Luo Wei pulled out her handkerchief and mercilessly took Nicole's toy away.

Nicole's claws were still raised, but the bug was gone. She tilted her head in confusion, seemingly unable to comprehend why the big, juicy worm in her embrace had disappeared.

Where's my worm? My big, fat worm?

Nicole's shiny black eyes looked up at Luo Wei.

"Ahem, little spiders shouldn't play with bugs. They carry germs. I'll keep it safe for you, and when you grow up, I'll give it back."

Luo Wei wrapped the silkworm baby in her handkerchief and tucked it into her pocket.

Nicole seemed upset. She waved her tiny legs and, with a swift leap, jumped from the dirt mound onto the stone wall. Her eight legs moved rapidly as she climbed into a narrow crevice in the wall.

"Nicole!"

Luo Wei hurried after her. "Nicole, come out! It's time to go home."

"Nicole?"

Nicole's furry little claws retracted into the crevice. She tilted her head to glance at Luo Wei before slipping further into the crack, disappearing completely.

"Nicole, come out!"

Luo Wei crouched down and peered into the crevice. A faint glimmer of light caught her eye.

Through the crack, she saw a patch of green.

On the other side of the crevice, there was an open space, like a collapsed sinkhole. It was filled with plants, and among them stood a large tree that looked like a mulberry tree.

"Hol," Luo Wei turned and called out, "there's a sinkhole here. Do you want to check if there are any magical plants you need?"

"Magical plants? Where?"

At the mention of magical plants, Hol immediately abandoned the fragrant spider cocoon he was holding and rushed to the crevice.

"There really is a sinkhole. How did I not notice it earlier?"

"The glowstones in the cave are too bright. I didn't notice the light at first either," Luo Wei said, picking up a stone and tapping on the wall to listen to the sound. "The wall isn't thick. Hol, let's break it open. Climbing over from the outside would take too much time."

"No need to break it. I have a way."

Hol reached into the crevice, and his slender fingers turned into brownish branches, growing and expanding like tree roots. In no time, the walls on either side of the crevice crumbled into stone debris, forming an oval-shaped stone door.

The two of them stepped through one after the other, and in an instant, it felt like they had entered another world.

It was a small sinkhole about twenty meters wide, with a circular opening at the top connecting it to the outside world. Sunlight streamed in through the opening, illuminating the bottom of the sinkhole.

The lower part of the sinkhole was shaped like a funnel, with a black pond at the very bottom. Around the pond grew dense vegetation, and the mulberry tree Luo Wei had seen was situated right next to the water.

"We've hit the jackpot! There's so much Noseberry Fruit, Fire Raven Vine, and Jiji Melon! These are all intermediate magical plants!"

Hol pulled out a burlap sack and jumped into the thorny bushes to start harvesting.

Strangely, the temperature inside the sinkhole was at least ten degrees warmer than outside. These magical plants, which should have withered in the snowy weather, were still bearing fruit here.

Luo Wei carefully pushed aside the grass and made her way toward the pond. She wanted to pick some mulberry leaves, and if possible, break off a few branches to take back for planting.

The soil near the pond was very soft, leaving footprints with every step. She treaded cautiously on the dense sawtooth grass, reaching the base of the mulberry tree and pulling down a branch.

As she tugged, she noticed that the mulberry tree was covered with black silkworm eggs. Some branches even had empty cocoons, while a few late-hatching silkworm babies were still nibbling on the leaves.

Jackpot! She had hit the jackpot!

With silkworm eggs and a mulberry tree, she could raise silkworms, spin silk, and sell it for a fortune!

Luo Wei hurriedly scraped off the silkworm eggs, carefully wrapping them in a piece of cloth and tucking them into her inner pocket.

The flexible mulberry branches swayed under her pull, and a few shimmering blue-purple feathers drifted down from the tree, landing on the sawtooth grass.

"Huh? These are feathers from a Mirage Bird! They're top-notch alchemy materials, worth five silver coins each!"

Hol emerged from the waist-high sawtooth grass, his eyes lighting up as he stared at the feathers. "Miss Luo Wei, do you want them? If not, I'll take them."

With silkworms in hand, who cared about a few tiny feathers? Luo Wei generously waved him off. "I don't want them. You can have them."

Seeing Hol eagerly scoop up the feathers into his bag, Luo Wei curiously asked, "What kind of bird is a Mirage Bird?"

"It's a type of magical beast whose feathers glow in rainbow colors. They migrate, living in the south during winter and returning in summer."

"Sometimes, they even bring back berry branches from the Wastes and plant them in their nesting grounds, which is why they're also called Berry Birds or Tree-Planting Birds."

"Flying to the Wastes?" Luo Wei found it strange. "Isn't there a magical array set up by a Grand Magister in the Magic Beast Mountains to prevent magical beasts from leaving?"

"Only the inland-facing side of the mountains has the array. The side facing the sea doesn't, so magical beasts can leave via the sea."

"Then couldn't these magical beasts follow the coastline and enter the heart of the Western Continent?"

"Not really," Hol explained. "The sea beasts are far more ferocious than those on land. Only migratory birds like the Mirage Bird, capable of long-distance flight, can leave the Magic Beast Mountains."

Luo Wei frowned. "If Mirage Birds can leave, then other large flying creatures could too, right?"

Anything with wings should be able to fly out via the sea route, shouldn't it?

"It's not that simple," Hol shook his head. "There are storms and mists over the sea. The mist is said to be an anti-magic zone where no magic can be used. The stronger the magical beast, the harder it is to escape the mist."

"To date, only Mirage Birds have been known to fly out of the Magic Beast Mountains. No other bird-like magical beasts have ever been found to do so."

"Only Mirage Birds can make it out. Is there something special about them?" Luo Wei murmured to herself.

"Something special?" Hol pondered for a moment but couldn't think of anything. "Not really. They're small and weak. Aside from flying high and far, there's nothing remarkable about them."

Luo Wei glanced at him skeptically. If flying high and far didn't count as special, what did a lich like Hol consider special?

Hol searched around and found two more feathers, happily stashing them in his bag while muttering, "Strange, we haven't seen many magical beasts today. Could it be that they're all hibernating for the winter?"

After gathering what they needed, the two were about to leave when a golden bolt of lightning suddenly streaked across the sky, followed by a deafening clap of thunder. The sky darkened instantly.

"Damn, it's going to rain!"

No sooner had Hol spoken than large raindrops began to fall, pouring through the circular opening above and into the sinkhole like a cascading waterfall.

In an instant, the calm pond was disrupted. The surface bubbled violently, as if boiling.

The rain was heavy and fast. By the time Luo Wei and Hol ran from the pond to the rock wall, the raindrops had turned into a continuous curtain of water. When they turned back to look, the pond had already risen by one or two meters, expanding five or six times its original size.

The mulberry tree by the pond was now submerged up to its trunk, with only the upper half of its canopy visible.

The water level continued to rise, and at an alarming speed.

"Something's wrong with this water," Hol said gravely. "It's coming up from underground. We need to leave quickly, or this place will be completely flooded."

Luo Wei had already reached the crevice on the other side, urging him, "If you know that, why are you still standing there? Move!"
"""